Education

B.A. University of Pittsburgh, M.A., Ph.D. York University (Toronto)

Ronald Rudin, author of seven books and numerous articles and producer of seven documentary films, carries out research that touches upon Canadian cultural and environmental history, with a particular focus on Atlantic Canada and its Acadian population.

Professor Rudin's interests in cultural and environmental history are front and centre in his most recent book, Kouchibouguac: Removal, Resistance and Remembrance at a Canadian National Park(University of Toronto Press, 2016). The book explores both the history and memory of the establishment of Kouchibouguac National Park in New Brunswick, whose creation in 1969 led to the expropriation of over 200 (mostly Acadian) families. In 2017, Kouchibouguac received from the Canadian Historical Association both the Clio Prize for best book dealing with Atlantic Canada and the Canadian Oral History Association Prize. It was also a finalist for the CHA's Macdonald Prize, for best book of the year in Canadian history. In addition, it received the Prix de l'Assemblée nationale from the Institut d'histoire de l'Amérique française, and earned honorable mention for best book of the year from the National (US) Council of Public History.

This focus upon the cultural and environmental history of Atlantic Canada is also central to Professor Rudin's current SSHRC-supported project, Maritime Marshlands, which explores the legacy of the federal government's large-scale project after World War II to reconstruct the dykes and aboiteaux that had long protected lands in both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick from the tides of the Bay of Fundy. This federal program (the Maritime Marshland Rehabilitation Administration) led to environmental and cultural changes that are still evident in the early twenty-first century.

More broadly, Professor Rudin has long had an interest in how the public comes to understand the past, which has drawn him to study the power of commemorative events. His book, Remembering and Forgetting in Acadie: A Historian's Journey through Public Memory(University of Toronto Press, 2009) and the associated website (rememberingacadie.concordia.ca) continue this interest in the connections between history and the larger public. Winner of both the 2010 book award of the National Council of Public History and the inaugural Public History prize of the Canadian Historical Association (2011), the book focuses on a series of Acadian commemorative events that took place in 2004-05, a subject that he has also presented in the documentary film Life After Île Ste-Croix, made in conjunction with Leo Aristimuño and distributed by the National Film Board of Canada. He is also the producer of Remembering a Memory/Mémoire d'un souvenir (2010), a documentary film that deals with the Celtic Cross on Grosse-Île, exploring how memories of the past — stretching back to the Irish potato famine of the 1840s — have shifted over the past century. This project was carried out in collaboration with Robert McMahon of the Royal Ontario Museum.

Professor Rudin is also currently leading the Lost Stories Project, which takes little known stories about the Canadian past, transforms them into public art, and then documents the process by way of documentary film. The project's five films -- that Rudin produced -- are available in English, French and (in one case) ASL at http://loststories.ca.

Rudin was the Academic Convenor for the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences held at Concordia in 2010. A fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, he has held a fellowship to support his research from the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.

Teaching activities

Courses

2015/16

HIST 306/2 Section A
History and the Public

HUMA 889/4 Section A
Constructing History

Selected publications

Books

Kouchibouguac: Removal, Resistance, and Remembrance at a Canadian National Park (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2016).

Selected Book Chapters

"Dugua vs Champlain: The Construction of Heroes in Atlantic Canada," in Nicole Neatby and Peter Hodgins, eds., Settling and Unsettling Memories: Essays in Canadian Public History (University of Toronto Press, 2012), pp 94-131

Kouchibouguac: Representations of a Park in Acadian Popular Culture," in Claire Campbell, ed., A Century of Parks Canada (University of Calgary Press, 2011), pp 205-33.

"From the Nation to the Citizen: Quebec Historical Writing and the Shaping of Identity," in Robert Adamoski, Dorothy E. Chunn and Robert Menzies, eds., Contesting Canadian Citizenship: Historical Readings (Peterborough ON: Broadview Press, 2002), pp. 95-111.

"Bargaining from Strength: Historical Writing and Political Autonomy in Late-Twentieth-Century Quebec," in Bruno Coppieters and Michel Huysseune, Secession, History and the Social Sciences (Brussels: VUB Brussels University Press, 2002), pp.159-177.

"The Discovery of the Body of Mgr François de Laval and the Construction of Identity in Quebec," in Jean-Pierre Wallot, ed, Constructions identitaires et pratiques sociales (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2002), pp. 229-242.

Multimedia Production

Websites

Lost Stories/ Histoires retrouvées: http://loststories.ca.The Lost Stories Project collects stories from the Canadian public, transforms them into public art, and documents the process by way of short documentary films. The site features the project's pilot film, Thomas Widd's Lost Story, with versions in English, French, and ASL. Launched July 2015.

Life After Île Ste. Croix : Digital Video, 60:00 min, 2006. In collaboration with Leo Aristimuño (Professor of Video Production and Media Studies, Rutgers University, Newark). Distributed by National Film Board of Canada.

Awards

Canadian Historical Association, 2014 Public History Prize (with Philip Lichti and Archinodes) for the website Returning the Voices to Kouchibouguac National Park/ Le retour des voix au parc national Kouchibouguac.

Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Fellowship, 2011-14.

Canadian Historical Association, 2011 Public History Prize for Remembering and Forgetting in Acadie: A Historian's Journey through Public Memory.

National Council on Public History, 2010 Book Award for Remembering and Forgetting in Acadie: A Historian's Journey through Public Memory.